Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: A 3D printed model of human lactation
doi: 10.64898/2026.01.30.702762
Figure Lengend Snippet: A) Schematic of the custom top-down FLight printer: Laser (405 nm) projection patterns were modulated with a digital micromirror device (DMD) and relayed through a lens-aperture assembly and mirror optics to project spatially patterned structures onto the mammary resin during fabrication. B) Light-dose matrices (intensity × exposure time) projected onto Matrigel/Col-I, dECM mam /Col-I and dECM mam /Matrigel photoresins. Each dot (1 × 1 mm) represents one tested light dose for printing. Exposure time range: 4-64 sec; Light intensity range: 2-64 mW cm -2 . C) Bright-field images and confocal reconstructions of millimeter-scale cylinders printed from each formulation. Constructs contained dense and continuously aligned filament networks (dashed boxes delimit the cylinder) Scale bars: 900 μm (left) and 100 μm (right). D) Histograms of filament angle orientation (alignment), with the percentage of filaments within ±15° of the dominant axis ( left ); quantification of filament-to-filament spacing (void spaces) for each resin (n = 60 void spaces from three technical replicates). Scale bars: 50 μm ( right ). E) Diffusion kinetics (10 kDA Rhodamine) in the three mammary hydrogels crosslinked with FLight printing or with homogenous UV light (bulk) at matched light intensities.
Article Snippet: A fiber coupled laser (405 n, 1000 mW power) with a high speckle contrast ratio (for modulation instability enabling microfilament formation), was expanded with a 4 f magnification system and projected onto a digital micromirror array device (DMD; DLP6500FYE, Texas instruments) with a pixel resolution 1920 × 1080 and a pixel pitch 7.56 μ m.[ ] The DMD allowed to project the light in digitally designed images (Microsoft PowerPoint for Microsoft 365), through a plano convex lenses (1:1 magnification) with an aperture in between (for isolation of the reflected image from the DMD diffraction pattern), onto a mirror for top-down Flight printing.
Techniques: Formulation, Construct, Diffusion-based Assay
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